Rate My Professor Catherine Rowen

Catherine Rowen, also known as Kate Rowen, is a senior lecturer in chemistry at Murdoch University within the School of Engineering and Information Technology. She earned a Doctor of Philosophy in Organic Chemistry from Griffith University (1999–2002), a Bachelor of Science with Honours in Chemistry from Griffith University (1995–1998), and a Bachelor of Nursing from the University of Southern Queensland (1994). Her academic career at Murdoch University spans from senior lecturer (2006–2020) to her current role as lecturer (2025–present). Prior to academia, she worked as a chemist at Epichem in 2005 and at the Australian Defence College from 2003 to 2005. In 2018, she served as Associate Dean for Learning and Teaching in the School of Engineering.

Rowen’s research interests encompass organic synthesis, chemistry education, and the development of derivatisation methods for detecting chemical warfare agent degradants. She originally developed a detection method for degradation products of chemical weapons during her time at the Defence Science and Technology Organisation. At Murdoch, she has supervised postgraduate theses, including masters projects on derivatisation of chemical warfare agent degradants without water removal and nerve agent degradants, as well as honours theses on rapid derivatisation methods for forensic science. Rowen has advanced chemistry education through innovations such as online content delivery via learning management systems, flipped classrooms with pre-recorded lectures and group activities for organic chemistry units, and a customised textbook for bridging chemistry courses. She presented on content delivery alternatives to lectures at the Australian Conference on Science and Mathematics Education in 2016 and on professional learning outcomes in 2017. Key publications include Rowen, C., Woods-McConney, A., Hughes, L., & Laird, D. W. (2017). Outcomes of a chemistry content professional learning session: Teachers’ perspectives. Teaching Science, 63(2), 42–47. She also compiled Fundamentals of Chemistry (Custom Edition), second edition (2018), for Murdoch University courses.